With less regret thofe laurels I refign,
Which, dying on my brows, revive on thine.
With better grace an ancient chief may yield
The long contended honors of the field,
Than venture all his fortune at a caft,
And fight, like Hannibal, to lofe at last.
Young princes, obftinate to win the prize,
Tho yearly beaten, yearly yet they rife:
Old monarchs, tho fuccefsful, ftill in doubt,
Catch at a peace, and wifely turn devout.
Thine be the laurel then; thy blooming age
Can beft, if any can, fupport the stage;
Which fo declines, that fhortly we may fee
Players and plays reduc'd to fecond infancy.
Sharp to the world, but thoughtless of renown,
They plot not on the stage, but on the town,
And, in despair their empty pit to fill,
Set up some foreign monster in a bill.
Thus they jog on, ftill tricking, never thriving,
And murd'ring plays, which they miscal reviving.
Our fenfe is nonsense, thro their pipes convey'd ;
Scarce can a poet know the play he made;
'Tis so disguis'd in death; nor thinks 'tis he
That suffers in the mangled tragedy.
Thus Itys first was kill'd, and after drefs'd
For his own fire, the chief invited guest.
I say not this of thy fuccessful scenes,
Where thine was all the glory, theirs the gains.
With length of time, much judgment, and more toil,
Not ill they acted, what they could not spoil.
Their setting-fun ftill shoots a glimmering ray,
Like ancient Rome, majestic in decay:
And better gleanings their worn foil can boast,
Than the crab-vintage of the neighb'ring coaft.
This diff'rence yet the judging world will fee;
Thou copiest Homer, and they copy thee.
IS hard, my friend, to write in fuch an age,
As damns, not only poets, but the stage. That facred art, by heaven itself infus'd, Which Mofes, David, Solomon have us'd,
Is now to be no more: the mufes' foes
Would fink their Maker's praises into prose.
Were they content to prune the lavish vine
Of straggling branches, and improve the wine,
Who, but a madman, would his thoughts defend?
All would fubmit; for all but fools will mend.
But when to common fenfe they give the lye,
And turn diftorted words to blafphemy.
They give the scandal; and the wise discern,
Their gloffes teach an age, too apt to learn.
What I have loosely, or prophanely, writ,
Let them to fires, their due defert, commit:
Nor, when accus'd by me, let them complain:
Their faults, and not their function, I arraign.
Rebellion, worse than witchcraft, they purfu'd;
The pulpit preach'd the crime, the people ru'd.
The ftage was filenc'd; for the faints would fee
In fields perform'd their plotted tragedy.
But let us firft reform, and then fo live,
That we may teach our teachers to forgive :
Our desk be plac'd below their lofty chairs;
Ours be the practice, as the precept theirs.
The moral part, at least, we may divide,
Humility reward, and punish pride;
Ambition, int'reft, avarice, accufe:
These are the province of a tragic mufe.
These haft thou chofen; and the public voice
Has equall'd thy performance with thy choice.
Time, action, place, are so preserv'd by thee,
That e'en Corneille might with envy fee
Th' alliance of his Tripled Unity.
Thy incidents, perhaps, too thick are sown;
But too much plenty is thy fault alone.
At least but two can that good crime commit,
Thou in defign, and Wycherly in wit.
Let thy own Gauls condemn thee, if they dare;
Contented to be thinly regular :
Born there, but not for them, our fruitful foil With more increafe rewards thy happy toil. Their tongue, enfeebled, is refin'd too much; And, like pure gold, it bends at ev'ry touch: Our sturdy Teuton yet will art obey,
More fit for manly thought, and strengthen'd with allay.
But whence art thou infpir'd, and thou alone,
To flourish in an idiom not thy own?
It moves our wonder, that a foreign guest
Should over-match the moft, and match the
In under-praifing thy deferts, I wrong;
Here find the firft deficience of our tongue: Words, once my ftock, are wanting, to commend So great a poet, and so good a friend.
TO MY HONOURED KINSMAN,
JOHN DRY DEN,
CHESTERTON, in the County of HunTINGDON, Efq;
OW blefs'd is he, who leads a country life,
Unvex'd with anxious cares, and void of
ftrife!
Who ftudying peace, and fhunning civil rage,
Enjoy'd his youth, and now enjoys his age:
All who deferve his love, he makes his own;
And, to be lov'd himself, needs only to be known.
Juft, good and wife, contending neighbors)
award to wait their final doom ; And, foes before, return in friendship home.
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